Friday, July 23, 2010

The Facts

At a recent writer’s group meeting with Harriette Austin, she offered some advice that really resonated with me. A member of the group was bemoaning the difficulties in the market now with the economy taking a toll on book sales. She wondered if she should even go to the trouble to send out query letters to agents. Harriette acknowledged the difficulties but quoted actress Ruth Gordon, who was a classmate of Harriette’s at Yale. The quote went, “Ignore the facts.” Ruth often listed all the reasons she shouldn’t have been a successful actress, but she didn’t pay attention to all the reasons she couldn’t be an actress. She persevered and ultimately did have a wonderful career in film. Harriette pointed out the same thing applies to this volatile market. If we’re writers, we have to keep writing.

Later after the writers’ group meeting, I picked up the Daily Guideposts which I usually read right before I go to bed. In that day’s devotion, John Sherrill shared about his experiences in the Second World War. Placed in a staging area in North Africa, he used to lie in his bed and listen to Berlin’s Axis Sally on the radio. Her grasp of the details of American troop movements was disarming, and her declarations they’d all be killed made him fearful. If she had the facts right about the troop movements, was she right about them being killed as well? But John, now eighty-eight, said, “You have to ignore the facts” and trust God.

Ignore the facts. How strange it was for me to get that advice two times in less than a couple of hours. I suppose, I too, have been studying some less than encouraging facts--facts that would steer me away from writing because of the seeming impossibility of ever getting a book published. Then there are the facts that might discourage me from continuing to hope for a friend’s healing, or a family member who’s struggling. Facts seem so final.

But the real finality lies in the truth of God. Jesus said in John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It’s not the facts that set us free, but God’s truth. The truth is that if it’s God’s purpose for me to have a book published, nothing can stop Him. The truth is God is the great physician in my friend’s life. And for the family member who’s struggling, nothing is impossible with God.

“Watch for me,” my then ten-year-old sister, Tammy, said as she headed out to the basement of our childhood home to retrieve some ...

Contact Form

Name

Email
*

Message
*

About Bev

Beverly Varnado is an award winning novelist,screenwriter, and blogger. Her screenplay, GiveMy Love to the Chestnut Trees, has been a finalist for the Kairos Prize and is now under option with Elevating Entertainment Motion Pictures. Her novels are Home to Currahee and Give My Love to the Chestnut Trees, which placed in the top ten for Christian Writer's Guild Operation First Novel. Her blog, One Ringing Bell, is now in itsseventh year with almost seven hundred posts. Her work has been featured on World Magazine Radio, The Upper Room Magazine, and she was recently featured in Southern Distinctions Magazine as one of seventeen authors writing about Georgia.Find out more at www.BeverlyVarnado.com

Why "One Ringing Bell?"

From Ezekiel 28:33-35, "Make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe, with gold bells between them. The gold bells and the pomegranates are to alternate around the hem of the robe. Aaron must wear it when he ministers." The pomegranates symbolize the word of God and the bells, the going forth of that word. As the sound of the bells was heard when the priest, Aaron, ministered, my desire is to ring out the word wherever and whenever possible--to be "One Ringing Bell."